“The Anointment of David,” circa 1555, depicts the Old Testament scene when the young shepherd David is anointed by the prophet Samuel. Similar paintings have incorrectly been labeled as Saul anointing David. Image by Paolo Veronese/Creative Commons via RNS.

Instead, as Jaroslav Pelikan argued in his seminal work The Idea of the University: A Reexamination, every university has a duty to the societies in which it is situated — local, regional, and international.

In an age of space and time compression thanks to advances in communications and digital technology those contexts are ever more immediate and expansive.

The internet brings untold opportunity for universities to fulfill their duties to society. To share their research. To spread their knowledge. To engage in conversations. To develop its arts, humanities, and sciences for the fitness of the world.

That is why I believe that social media — and digital technology in general — provide prime platforms for scholars to share their ideas and innovations with the public.

With that said, I am well aware that these media and technologies come with their own issues, dangers, and roadblocks — especially for women, people of color, and adherents of minority religions.

To explore how scholars can best utilize social media as a means of sharing scholarship and engaging the major issues of our society I invite you to join me and a couple of other amazing scholars for an upcoming webinar. Even if you’re not a scholar you should join the conversation and share your perspective!

The Religious Freedom Center of the Freedom Forum Institute’s October webinar, “Religious Studies in Social Media: Promising Venues for Public Scholarship” will be held October 18, 2018 from 12:00pm-1:00pm EST.

We will discuss how scholars of religion can engage different publics through social media to raise the visibility of their work. I will co-present with Kelly Baker, editor of Women in Higher Education and Simran Jeet Singh, post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Religion and Media (NYU). The webinar will include a presentation and extended Q&A.

The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required here: RSVP.

The Public Scholars Project is a joint initiative of the American Academy of Religion and the Religious Freedom Center of the Freedom Forum Institute. Through seminars and other resources, the Public Scholars Project equips scholars of religion to effectively communicate in the public sphere and foster religious literacy.

Since 2016, the issues of immigration, religious freedom, and the question of the compatibility of Islam and the West have been hotter-than-usual issues in the United States. In the narrative of Latino Muslims (a term I will later problematize) in the US, these various strands intersect and overlap.

According to Harold Morales’s own previous research, there “are likely between 50,000 to 70,000” Latino Muslims in the US. Regardless of numbers, there is a pertinent need to study religious minorities such as Latino Muslims for their ability to “de-naturalize and de-essentialize, to broaden and to push our varied and unfixed understandings of and relations” (211) to various categories of religion, identity, ethnicity, and issues such as immigration, religious freedom, and Islam in and of the West. This need is what Morales seeks to address in his latest book, Latino and Muslim in America: Race, Religion, and the Making of a New Minority.

Letters distributed to homes, lawmakers, and businesses around London back in March encouraged individuals to “take action” against Muslims who have “made your loved ones suffer.” It offered a points-based system advocating for hurling verbal abuse, bombing or burning a mosque, or throwing acid in the face of a Muslim. The date was set for April 3.

The Washington Post reported, “As April 3 approached, many took to social media to share their thoughts on the hate campaign. Some posts urged British Muslims to take care and look out for one another. Others were determined that the letters would not cause them to change their daily habits.”

Others responded on social media with counter-campaigns such as #PublishAMuslimDay or #LoveAMuslimDay. The counter-campaigns won the day, but the uncomfortable questions still remain:

How could such an advertisement not cause more general concern and outrage?

What kind of philosophies, postures, and politics lie behind such blatant and brutal hate?

Why would someone go to the trouble to print and distribute such a disturbing piece of mail in the first place?

Islamophobia — the ignorant fear and hatred of Islam and Muslims, often leading to anti-Muslim rhetoric and possibly anti-Muslim actions — is the root cause of such flagrant hate and viscous verbosity.

By definition, Islamophobia is fueled by ignorance and misunderstanding of Islam and Muslim communities. It’s also fueled by “Orientalism” — the representation of Asia, especially the Middle East, in a stereotyped way that is regarded as embodying a colonialist attitude. These attitudes help fan the flames of anti-Muslim rhetoric, Eurocentrism, and racism in the U.S. and abroad.

If you know me, a lot of my efforts and work are aimed at combatting Islamophobia and Orientalist imaginings of Islam and Muslim communities. It’s in that spirit that I have helped develop an online “Introduction to Islam” course for the University of Florida. It’s the first of its kind.

The course provides an overview of basic Islamic beliefs and practices through an examination of Islamic history, law, and an array of theological orientations as articulated in the traditions of teachings of various traditions. The course also examines Islamic practices in the contemporary period and thereby exposes students to reflect on the realities of religious everyday life and religious change. The course aims to give the students the ability to critically analyze the impacts of Islamic beliefs and values on social and cultural practices, and the formation of institutions, communities, and identities. The course also aims to challenge students to grasp the complex relationship between the discursive traditions of a major world religion as well as the ambiguities of some key terms of Muslim religious thinking.

This course will lead students into an exploration of the basic history, contemporary expressions, concepts and phenomena, beliefs and rituals, communities and common experiences of Muslims across the globe. While such a course cannot amply cover the full extent of Muslim traditions across the ages and around the globe the expectation is that students engaged with this course will come away with a fuller appreciation for the richness and variety of Islam while also possessing a foundational understanding of its core concepts and practices.

As an academic study of the Islamic Tradition and the civilization(s) that it evolved this course is not one of Islamic theology per se (a religiously committed intellectual discipline). Instead, this is an academic investigation of this great religion, which will use an intellectually rigorous and critical lens that draws on history, sociology, anthropology and critical hermeneutics in our study. For those looking for a theology course that sets out to show that one religious tradition is superior to the others or has “the truth," this is not the class that you want. Also for those wanting to demonize the tradition, you too will find yourself challenged and confronted. This course aims to present a critical, but balanced, picture of Islam and Muslims across time and in the world today.

If you are interested in taking this course as a UF student or want to learn more, take a look at the course syllabus or click HERE to find more information about registering for the course.

There is the mother who converted when she saw her son transition from a life of drugs and crime to one of prayer and faithful religious practice. Then there's the story of the guy who met the woman of his dreams, moved to Kenya to pursue her, and converted in order to become her husband. Or there is the Marine who took the shahadah while stationed in Japan. There are former Pentecostals and Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses and agnostics, atheists and Mormons; they've all converted to Islam. They are from Puerto Rico and Mexico, Argentina and Ecuador, San Franciso and San Salvador, New York, Newark, Miami, and Houston.

They are Latinx Muslims, one of the fastest growing religious communities in the U.S.

At the end of my thesis, I wrote there was still a pertinent need to expand research in this area and in the quest for quality, comprehensive, newswriting and coverage, that students and commentators should provide more nuanced information about this important religious community. Over the last several years I have seen an increasing amount of new research, publications, and writing on the subject. It's an exciting time to be in the field.

Just this year, five major publications have come out -- or are on their way -- that will help scholars and a wider public better understand the why, what, when, where, and how of Latinx conversion to Islam and how Latinx Muslims are shaping the American religious scene and impacting the broader Muslim world. Below I provide a brief overview, review, and comment on each of them before concluding with some ideas for the future, and some suggestions for how these might spur further research and consideration of Latinx Muslims in the U.S. and beyond:

I start with this text because it is both highly valuable and for me,it is highly personal. Since I first met Isa Parada at a masjid in Houston, TX and began learning from my Latinx Muslim teachers and friends I have remained humbly fascinated with Latinx Muslim journeys through the uncertainties of being "quadruple minorities" -- Latinx in the Muslim community, Muslim in the Latinx community, Latinx in the U.S., and Muslim in the U.S.

This text, which I turned to in its draft form as a website and blog during my master's research, not only presents general comments on the place of Latinx Muslims in the American Muslim story, but it also does the simple, but significant, service of presenting scores of stories from Latinx Muslims themselves. Readers listen to men and women from across the Americas who identify as Latina, Latino, Latinx, Hispanic, or Spanish-speaking tell their stories of reversion (or 'conversion,' Latinx Muslims refer to their conversions as 'reversions,' both because they believe in fitra -- that human beings are born with an innate inclination toward tawhid [the oneness of God] and draw on their Andalusian roots to speak to the very Arab and Muslim basis of much of Latinx culture, language, and history).

Readers will enjoy how Galvan frames these narratives with his own historical, theological, and cultural commentary, but will be most impressed by the sheer diversity of stories and experiences of those who converted in prison or on their front porch, to those who reverted in Australia and Bolivia, and those who found Islam on Facebook, through Latinx specific organizations, their future spouses, in dreams, or even while smoking weed and drinking a 22oz. of Heineken. Not only does this text do well to let the stories stand for themselves and permit Latinx Muslims' voices to be heard above all else, but it also provides a wealth of primary data for researchers and interested students looking to learn more.

2. American Prisons: A Critical Primer on Culture and Conversion to Islam by SpearIt

Against, and alongside, what he posits as a poisonous prison system he showcases the spiritual journeys of many Muslims who convert while incarcerated. Significantly, he includes an exploration and analysis of Latinx Muslims -- their conversions, their communities, and their central importance in telling the story of Islam in the U.S.

One of the more significant voices in my research has been "Imam Danny." He is a scholar, an inter-religious leader, and a friend. His tireless efforts at understanding, communicating, and sharing Islamic theology are well appreciated by many Muslims -- Latinx and otherwise.

His most recent project is a labor of love that also opens up a window into the influence of Latinx Muslims in the process of Islamic theology in the U.S. and abroad. Not only have Latinx Muslims been producing works, and translating works into, Spanish over the last 40 years, they have also been creating new works in English. Imam Hernandez's efforts at translating and collecting 42 hadith, reports of the words and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and other early Muslims, on the five pillars of Islamic practice (confessing the faith, prayer, charity, fasting, and the hajj pilgrimage) are quick, practical, references for intentional Muslims. More than that, they are another prime example of indigenous knowledge production and leadership among Latinx Muslims who are making an impact on their religion in the U.S. and abroad. It is evidence that Latinx Muslims are not only being shaped by the global umma (Muslim community) but also shaping it with their words and deeds.

4. "Latino Muslims in the United States Reversion, Politics, and Islamidad," Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion by Gaston Espinosa, Juan Galvan, and Harold Morales

This journal article lauds itself as the first large-scale survey research on the demographics of the Latinx Muslim community and the question of why Latina/os converted to Islam. There has been important research conducted in this area, but as they note it has largely been limited to smaller numbers in particular cities and without any consistent methodology. As they wrote, "This study seeks to help fill this gap in the literature by analyzing the survey results of 560 Latino Muslims across the U.S."

What they provide is the most comprehensive picture of the general make-up and sociological contours of the Latinx Muslim community in the U.S. They also make a critical interlude by discussing the idea of "Islamidad" -- a distinct Latinx Muslim identity that resists complete assimilation to Arab cultural norms even as it reimagines and expands what it means to be Latinx and Muslim.

5. Latino and Muslim in America: Race, Religion, and the Making of a New Minority by Harold Morales

This book, which comes out in April, is a highly anticipated and pioneering monograph that, "examines how so-called 'minority groups' are made, fragmented, and struggle for recognition in the U.S.A." To do so, it focuses on the story of, "Latino Muslims [who] celebrate their intersecting identities both in their daily lives and in their mediated representations online."

While I have yet to get my hands on this book, the publisher's description gives us an overview:

In this book, Harold Morales follows the lives of several Latino Muslim leaders from the 1970’s to the present, and their efforts to organize and unify nationally in order to solidify the new identity group’s place within the public sphere. Based on four years of ethnography, media analysis and historical research, Morales demonstrates how the phenomenon of Latinos converting to Islam emerges from distinctive immigration patterns and laws, urban spaces, and new media technologies that have increasingly brought Latinos and Muslims in to contact with one another. He explains this growing community as part of the mass exodus out of the Catholic Church, the digitization of religion, and the growth of Islam. Latino and Muslim in America explores the racialization of religion, the framing of religious conversion experiences, the dissemination of post-colonial histories, and the development of Latino Muslim networks, to show that the categories of race, religion, and media are becoming inextricably entwined.

As is evident from the above, research from, and on, Latinx Muslims is on the rise. The above provides valuable fodder and necessary provocation for further research and understanding by broader Muslim, American, and Latinx populations. Reflection, writing, and research is getting deeper and wider and that’s a good thing.

Of course, to be more cognizant, and fine-tuned, in researching Latinx Muslims, researchers have to ask the right questions in a community that is still growing, emerging, and solidifying itself. Future research must be deeper and broader still, more thoroughly theoretical in its approach, and perhaps focused on some of the following suggested areas for further research:

more understanding of, and from, Latinx Muslim women who provide a rich, unique, and gendered place and perspective within a community where they are the majority;

investigations of specific Latinx influence on Islamic doctrine and Muslim practice in the U.S. and abroad;

further exploration of the accents and considerable transnational lives of Latinx Muslims. I am aiming to provide more on this in my own dissertation research with Puerto Rican Muslims and in my forthcoming book from Hurst Publishers and Oxford University Press on Islam and Muslim communities in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Certainly, there is more left to discover about the nuances of this community’s narrative and how they fit into the global Muslim picture. Yet, the above works help provide a firm, and comprehensive, foundation for this further research.

Just 100 years ago the Latinx Muslim community in the U.S. scantly existed, if it was present at all. Today, Latinx Muslims have the opportunity to shape Islam and Muslim communities in the U.S., in Latin America, and across the globe with their particular accent on its theology, practice, and expansion and via the various media of global communication and contact between multiple cultures and communities. The above works showcase how this is already happening and why it matters.

In an op-ed written for the Orange Country Register right before the holiday season, Joel Kotkin — the R.C. Hobbs Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University — wrote that, “it is hard to deny that we live in an increasingly post-religious civilization.”

While he admits that there are emerging alternative, non-institutional, forms of religion and spirituality and decries the dangers of the potent religion-plus-politics mix, his argument is an old one — that traditional religions are in terminal decline in the industrialized world.

He couldn’t be more wrong.

Religion has always been with us. And it still is.

Throughout history, it has expressed the deepest questions human beings can ask, and it has taken a central place in the lives of virtually all civilizations and cultures. As we think all the way back to the dawn of human consciousness, we find religion everywhere we turn. And it hasn’t gone away.

In the spirit of understanding religion — what it is, why it is, where it is, how it develops, changes, and shapes our world even as it is shaped by it — I am launching a new, public, platform for religious literacy: INSTA TO WORLD RELIGIONS.

If you’re interested in learning more about religion, curious about various religious traditions, or just like pretty pictures, videos, and stories on Instagram this course is for you.

The idea is to teach the equivalent of an introduction to world religions course via images, videos, stories and blogs and do so through Instagram.

I will kick off the course on Tuesday January 23rd!

Each week, from Tuesday to Thursday, I will post photos, videos, stories, and blogs to explain the basic worldviews, rituals, material culture, and beliefs of Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Chinese, Japanese, Indigenous, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions as well as New Religious Movements and “religion beyond religion.”

The course will also include an exploration of the very category of “what religion is” and dive into the social, political, and cultural elements that come into play in the development and understanding of the religions we are studying. It is my hope that our course will provide a way for you to not only learn more about other religions, but also engage with your own perspective and promote a posture of respectful curiosity and imaginative empathy toward learning more about religious traditions other than your own.

I invite you to join me next Tuesday to start the course by talking more about WHY we should study religion in this day and age and how despite the overblown claims of some, religion is powerful and persistent, and shows no signs of disappearing.

What wasn’t ridiculous was the message I wrote to him: that before he goes off to save the climate and solve the refugee crisis and bring peace to the Middle East, he first needs to take care of priority number one—addressing sexual abuse in his church.

From Panther Now, a publication from Florida International University:

Muslims have had a significant impact on Latin culture, politics, and society, with 3,000 Spanish words having historical connections to Arabic, such as the words “pantalones” (pants) and “arroz” (rice). Their influence, however, has been unnoticed because of the lack of conversation around the topic, according to a professor.

Ken Chitwood is a [religion scholar] at the University of Florida. For the past six years he’s been studying Islam in the Americas and other subjects. But like many people, there was a time he was unaware of Islam’s influence in the west, he said.

Chitwood was writing a weekly report during a mosque visit when he met a man dressed in a tunic who told him of how he converted to Islam in New York, he said. It was then that Chitwood decided to research conversion stories, and after researching 135 conversion stories, he soon noticed a pattern: they had connections to Latin America.

He knew there was a large amount of research done to show Islam’s ties to Latin America, but people weren’t paying attention to it. When he taught a course on the subject years later at the University of Florida, students found it difficult to research. There were plenty of documents and statistics, but it was hard to piece together an “overall narrative.”

Through the event “Islam in Latin America,” which [was] held at [Florida International] University on Tuesday, Nov. 7, Chitwood [spoke] about Islam’s heavy presence in both Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Islam and Muslim communities’ influence in the past and present.

In his address in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, May 21, while calling on Muslim leaders to lead the fight against terrorism, President Donald Trump identified Iran as a despotic state giving safe harbor and financing terror in the Middle East. As Iran is a Shia state and Saudi Arabia a Sunni-led country, some media outlets criticized Trump for taking sides in the Shia-Sunni sectarian divide.

As a scholar of Islam and a public educator, I often field questions about Sunnis, Shias and the sects of Islam. What exactly is the Shia-Sunni divide? And what is its history?

A few years ago I had the opportunity to travel to Kenya and interact with the local evangelical Lutheran community. During my time there, and in subsequent interviews and conversations, I talked to them about Somalis, al-Shabaab, and their perspective on Christian-Muslim relations.

Long considered – perhaps naïvely – a relative oasis of Christian–Muslim calm, Kenya is seeing increased tension and conflict, mainly exacerbated by al-Shabaab militants, Kenyan military and Christian mobs. Concomitantly, the media and popular sentiment often vilify Somalis. This goes back to government agitprop during the ‘Shifta War’ of the 1960s. Among evangelical Christians, however, attitudes toward Somalis can prove more ambivalent. Drawing on interviews conducted with both Kenyan evangelical Christians and Somali Muslims, this article seeks to examine the theological shift among Kenyan evangelicals wherein they have re-cast Somalis as Samaritans and in doing so have made their primary approach to this conflict one of evangelization, not open hostility. This shift is due to a confluence of factors including community context, economic pragmatism and religious motivations, and the focus on evangelism does not necessarily preclude peace-building. What this article aims to present is a glimpse into the outlook of Kenyan evangelicals toward Somalis, particular Somali Muslims, and discuss these attitudes in the nexus of factors mentioned above. The article will reveal how, by re-casting the Somali ‘villain’ as Samaritan, some Kenyan evangelicals maintain boundaries and foster new identities in East Africa for the sake of a longed-for peace.

Why does Islam matter in the Americas? When did it arrive here? What values, practices, traditions, & tensions exist within its histories & social dynamics in the West? How can we study Muslim communities in this hemisphere?

In Spring 2017 I will offer a course called, "Islam in the Americas" (REL 4393/LAS 4935) with the UF Religion Department and in association with the UF Center for Latin American Studies. The lecture period will be every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:35-10:25am (coffee is encouraged. Donuts are accepted as bribes...just kidding...kind of).

This course will place Latin America, the Caribbean, & North America within a broader Islamic framework & locate Muslims of various backgrounds & experiences within the hemisphere from the 1500s to today, from Cape Columbia, Canada to Catamarca, Argentina, & many periods & places in between.

The semester will be divided into four main parts: 1) studying global Islam; 2) theoretical themes in the study of religion in the Americas; 3) the history of Islam in the Americas; and 4) country/region specific cartographies of contemporary American Muslim populations.

n attempting to locate, and explore, Islam in the Americas students will first have to apprehend a bit of what it is to study "global Islam." In this introductory part of the course we will spend some time discussing what "Islam" is, what its main texts, traditions, and shared vocabulary are, and how studying Islam globally often means studying Muslim communities locally, but being sure to set them within macro-contexts at the regional, hemispheric, or global levels as well.

Studying Islam in the Americas will also require a theoretical foundation. This second part of our course will cover the heritage and contact of multiple cultures in the Americas -- both across the hemisphere and the Atlantic ocean. In order to do so, we will take a look at the heritage of Europe (specifically al-Andalus), North and West Africa, and other transnational ties via politics, economics, ideologies, technology, and more.

With these foundational aspects in place we will then dive into the study of the history of Islam in the Americas, the third section of course. Looking back to pre-colonial contact with Europe, we will navigate the "deeper roots" of Islam in the Americas that are largely ignored in historical overviews before delving into the "forbidden" and forced passages of Muslims across the Atlantic as conquistadors, slaves, and monsters in the Western imagination. Once here in the hemisphere we will see how Islam took part in, shaped, and was molded by its American context even as Muslims adapted to, resisted, and surrendered to the broader Euro-American worldview and its attendant lifeways.

In the final part of the course we will take a closer look at specific countries and regions ranging from North America to Latin America and the Caribbean. Specifically we will consider constituencies in Brazil, Mexico, Suriname, Trinidad, Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, the U.S., and Canada.

Over the course of the semester there will be ample opportunity for students to read and respond, discuss and deliberate the topics via various assignments. However, a semester capstone project, which will be worked on, edited, and completed throughout the course of the spring, will be presented via a final paper and presentation. These projects can take up any number of thematic, chronological, demographic, or geographic topics.

It is my hope that this course will help place Latin America, the Caribbean, and North America within a broader Islamic framework and locate Muslims of various genealogies within the hemisphere over the longue durée. urthermore, this course will aim to focus on local values, practices, traditions, and tensions placing these within larger questions about what kinds of histories, social dynamics, and meaning production make Islam significant, or how its significance is denied, in a part of the world that hasn’t recognized its history here or its contemporary configurations or impact.

If you have any questions, comments, or want to know more about the texts, assignments, or expectations for the course, please do not hesitate to contact me.

A paradox lies at the heart of the contemporary study of global Islam.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent “war on terror,” which has recapitulated the Huntingtonian clash of civilizations thesis and its emphasis on the false dichotomy between “Islam” and “the West" there has concomitantly been an increase in the academic attention afforded to the study of Islam.

Although the number of Islamic studies degrees conferred has more than doubled in the past decade, Islamic studies has also been remained largely confined to the regions of the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia, leaving Muslim communities in Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas to the wayside. In a word, even with the rise of the study of global Islam, its scope has failed to fully incorporate other geographies and the study of Islam beyond the Middle East is still underrepresented. Thus, there is still a pertinent need to globalize the study of “global Islam.”

For over a thousand years, Islam has been integral to what is known as "Western civilization." Even so, it is too often assumed assumed that Islam is a foreign element and Muslims in the West are doomed to be out of place and in perpetual conflict. The need for accurate, reliable scholarship on this topic is terribly urgent.

Thus, this has become the focus of my academic research on Islam in the Americas. I am convinced that understanding currents in global Islam -- peaceful and violent, widespread and vernacular, popular and institutional -- must be understood from a truly global perspective, while at the same time being embedded in local histories, tensions, movement, and exchanges. Exploring American Islam -- from Canada to the Caribbean, from Phoenix, Arizona to Patagonia, Argentina -- is a prime manner in which to do so.

Recently I published a book chapter and a peer-reviewed journal article to that effect. The first is titled, "Exploring Islam in the Americas from Demographic and Ethnographic Perspectives." This chapter in Brill's Yearbook of International Religious Demography: 2016discusses some population data concerning Muslims in the Americas and offers pathways for further research based on these statistics. These demographics invite a more thorough study of under-appreciated religious populations that present ample opportunities for research in cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, and specifically apropos to the ethnographic study of religion.

The latter work was recently published in the Waikato Islamic Studies Review Vol. 2, No. 2 out of New Zealand. The aim of this paper is to intermesh prevalent theories about globalization with the study of Islam, both historically and contemporaneously. It is, effectively, an attempt to globalize the study of Islam in the Americas and offer several brief examples of avenues to approach this study in the hope to not only feature existent work in the field, but offer further areas for consideration and future research. It covers Islam in Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Latina/o U.S.A., and in the "digital borderlands" of Latina/o Muslim specific Facebook pages.

Thank you for taking the time to learn more about American Islam's history, contemporary manifestations, and linkages to global Islamic dynamics. Also, for those of you wondering...I am still in my "comp cave." My exams last from mid-October until mid-December. I look forward to returning to the world of writing, analysis, and news commentary in January 2017!

Too many acronyms? Let's break it down. Ken will be speaking in New Orleans (NOLA) for the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod's (LCMS) National Youth Gathering (NYG) from July 17-19, 2016.

Having been a part of the last few NYGs as a participant, volunteer, and speaker Ken is excited to return for the 2016 edition to speak on two topics close to his heart: faith and popular culture and Islam!

Here are the sessions Ken will be leading. Both will be interactive sessions that will invite participants to engage with questions, comments, and reactions to the topic. If you're in town for the gathering, be sure to come and check them out:

Louis L'Amour -- the American novelist -- once said, "Knowledge is like money: to be of value it must circulate, and in circulating it can increase in quantity and, hopefully, in value."

It is one thing for me to share my perspective and knowledge (whatever that is), but personally -- as an educator -- my true joy comes from when I see students get actively engaged with the topic. Discussing. Dissecting. Debating. Entering into the discourse on religion, culture, & the interaction between the two.

Right now I am teaching a course on "Religion & the News." The first assignment asked, "Why religion news?" Why is religion newswriting, commentary, and analysis important? Why is religious studies a valuable area of research and reflection? One of my students took that assignment and used it as a catalyst to create her own blog. In the spirit of circulating knowledge and encouraging a public discussion of religion in the news, I want to share it with you.

Here is an excerpt from her first post:

If a journalist was to walk around Times Square and ask random street-goers their personal beliefs on the subject of religion, six-in-ten would say that it is important to them (Connolly); however, if the same journalist were to also give these interviewees a simple religion quiz asking basic questions on widely known religions such as, “what are the four Gospels?” or “name a sacred text of Hinduism,” a large majority of them would fail….Why would sixty percent of Americans state that religion is paramount when they know hardly anything about it?

SUFISM is sometimes called “the inner power” of Islam because of its focus on the Qur'an, the Prophet Mohammad, and tawḥīd— the ultimate divine oneness of God. Nevertheless, it is often misunderstood by both well-meaning newcomers and those seeking to strip Islam of its authenticity. While recognizing the complexity of all religions, independent scholar Peter Samsel wants to simplify Sufism in his book A Treasury of Sufi Wisdom, which includes a collection of and commentary on Sufi works. His aim is to provide a unifying concept to Sufi thought and practice, introducing the newcomer to its depths and diversity while also sharing its simplicity.

Samsel said that his background “is best summarized as a lifelong quest for the real” and that his journey with Sufism was, and is, driven by comparing religion and seeking wisdom in Sufi masters. Hence, his desire to share the wisdom of Sufi luminaries with a broader audience in this Treasury. At the core of Islam and its expression in Sufism, according to Samsel, is the concept of “divine unity” — tawḥīd.

Often, Sufism is conceived as the mystical dimension of Islam. What does that tell us? Ready to admit that Sufism adapts and changes with time and according to its social, political, and cultural context Louis Brenner attempted a definition of Sufism as, “a spiritual discipline intended to liberate the human spirit from its corporeal shell and enable it to move closer to God” or as “spiritual work that…aims at the transformation of the hidden or inner aspect of the human being.” This inner work has to do with the divine breath, or spirit, that is imbued in each individual, which is both visible and hidden. The idea is to transfer what is hidden into what is manifest and thus transport the Muslim from one state of being to another, moving from hidden and removed from God to being in his presence.

What is the spiritual work and/or discipline associated with Sufism? The three primary means are education, rituals, and initiatic relationships. Sufis are often believed to join the aforementioned tariqas and to begin an ascetic, discipled, relationship with an emir or wali or “saint” or “friend of God.” This relationship is perceived as central to the progression of a Sufi as the wali is seen to have a particular and blessed relationship with God, which in turn gives him a powerful baraka, or spiritual power and blessing. Certain spaces and places, either associated with that saint or deemed holy by Sufis, are also filled with baraka such as caves, shrines, tombs, mountains, or other natural areas. In the context of such an order, and in contact with the baraka, the Sufi disciple will learn the “science of Sufism” through education practices centered first on the outward and sensual aspects of the Qur’an, Shari’a, and Islamic law before coming to consider the mystical, inner, and hidden aspects of the above that can only be appreciated through spiritual senses. Spiritual senses are honed through ritual prayer, dhikr — remembrance of the names and attributes of God, wird — secret litanies passed on through emirs and saints or revealed directly by God, ascetic practices, seclusion rituals, dance, movement, and the like. These are the oft presented “spiritual disciplines” associated with Sufism, both as a concept and as a phenomenon.

Furthermore, Sufis are often conceived as mystical Muslims in pursuit of “the greater jihad” of inner spiritual struggle and more likely to merge Muslim concepts and practices with local, indigenous, beliefs and observances. This has led some researching Islam in Africa to speak of Sufism — with its seeming improvisation, contextualization, and leniency in pursuit of inner transformation — as representative of “African Islam” in contradistinction to “Islam in Africa,” typified by Salafis bent on reform and strict adherence to commanding right and forbidding wrong according to universal/global Muslim faith and piety. Beyond Africa Sufism is held up as a paragon in the “good Muslim”/“bad Muslim” dichotomy. Again, Sufis appear to outsiders as mystical monk-like Muslims pursuing peace and a piety of transformation in the face of violent and radical Muslims hell-bent on world domination and enforcing their brutal and unbending interpretation of Islam through “the lesser jihad” of physical war.

However, these conceptions of Sufism are more indicative of an etic analytical concept than any type of self-identifying or emic understanding of what Sufism is or is not. Furthermore, using this term to refer to a broad and complex sodality such as “Sufism” obscures as much as, if not more than, it may reveal. Sufism is not a defined sect or denomination of Islam, as it is often represented to be. While it can be organized into formal networks and brotherhoods it is more often diffuse and integrated into other streams of Islam (Sunni, Shi’i, etc.). Furthermore, the phenomena associated with Sufism (e.g. wird, dhikr, asceticism etc.) are not universally observed among those seeking inner transformation through Islam. Moreover, Sufis are not always apolitical or necessarily peaceful. Tijaniyya and Muridiyya in Senegal have long been involved in politics (one Murid serving as president) and the Naqshbandi of the Levant being heavily involved in sectarian violence following the U.S. led invasion of Iraq. Kane notes how the “Baro brothers” — the sons of a significant Tijaniyya family — use shrine pilgrimage to consolidate power and “prove their spiritual rank” more than as a ritual practice of devotion or transcendence. Sufis can also prove patriarchal, as Joseph Hill argued in the context of Sufi leadership in Senegal among Taalibe Baay, and be advocates of reform and the enforcement of standards of universal Islamic practice. Indeed, it is difficult to construct or conceive of Sufism as any sort of essentialized entity or sui generis sensation.

The autor, Peter Samsel (PHOTO: World Wisdom).

And yet, Samsel said that the, “aim and fruition [of tawḥīd] is to clarify the overwhelming, singular Divine reality in all its ramifications.” In a world that threatens to inundate the spiritual seeker in complexity and chaos Samsel contends Sufism offers a path that unifies the self in the face of the manifestation of Divine unity in one’s life.

To present this path and share it with an audience outside of traditional Sufi orders and brotherhoods involved a tremendous amount of reading in the primary literature of Sufism, said Samsel. He also had to ponder the question of what exactly Sufism is. Scholars, practitioners, and the public are often uncertain or inexact in their estimations of what Islamic mysticism is all about. Samuel believes this “Path of Unity” leads people into the core of Sufism and even of life itself.

In addition, Samsel hopes the work will correct distortions of Sufism and Islam. Samsel said, “the most typical misrepresentation of Sufism is that it is not authentically Islamic, whether this is claimed by Muslim fundamentalists, Muslim modernists, or Western spiritual seekers. However, scholarly consensus has long recognized Sufism as intrinsic to Islam.” Samsel is convinced that, “Sufi writings are, in fact, profoundly grounded in Islam’s foundational sources, as the anthology readily serves to demonstrate.”

In final estimation, Samsel intends for the Treasury to provide “orientation and inspiration.” He said he hopes the book will appeal to both Western spiritual seekers and Muslims. For the former, that they may “be attracted to a spiritual way that nourishes the conjoined perspectives of both love and knowledge,” said Samsel. For the latter he said, “I hope it may also appeal to Muslims who may be caught in a dry, legalistic understanding of their faith with perhaps little notion of the spiritual depths it possesses.” While such an anthology, he said, “cannot capture every subtlety of a lived path such as Sufism,” Samsel believes this is a great place for anyone to start on the path to Sufi wisdom or to get a solid basis in Sufi thought and its inherently Islamic philosophical foundations.

Once upon a time, I wrote a master's thesis with Concordia University Irvine. Now, I am in a PhD program continuing my study of Latina/o Muslims in the U.S., Latin America, and the Caribbean. I am interested in the ways in which Latina/o Muslims come to take the shahadah and how they shape, and are shaped by, Islam via local Muslim communities and transnational connections.

This paper, published in the University of Waikato's Islamic Studies Review, is a result of my master's research and explores the narratives and pathways to conversion that Latina/o Muslims take to Islam. It also reveals a bit more about their demographics, their organizations, and their sentiment.

I humbly submit this work to wider scrutiny, scholarly critique, and feedback from the Latina/o Muslim community that has been so helpful and hospitable as I've conducted research.

Really, with all my heart. And not in some kumbayá-lets-all-get-along or orientalist-fascinated-with-the-middle-east-dancing-around-in-a-fez type of way.

I love Muslims because many of them I count as friends -- from Amman, Jordan to Miami, U.S.A. from Rakai, Uganda to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and everywhere in between. My Muslims friends have shown me immense hospitality in their homes, forgiveness when I offer them pork when we are eating out, and insight into their social situations in my many years of conversations, meals, and moments of exchange with them.

That's why I'm fed up with Islamophobia.

It's time for a 'radical' response to the irrational fear that too often grips our fascinations, is broadcasted on our televisions, and pushed from our pulpits.

I know. I know. 'Islamophobia' is a charged word. There are problems with using such labels. And yes, we need to love those we deem, 'Islamophobic' as well. And I do. At least I try.

But in the face of constant vitriol being thrown at my Muslim friends and a natural proclivity for 'us' to turn against 'them' (whoever the 'them' in vogue might be) I am proposing a 'radical' response to Islamophobia.

Sojourners Magazine was kind enough to carry my piece where I lay out the WHY, the WHAT, and the HOW of the necessity of a Christian response to Islamophobia. For this week and this week only you can get behind their paywall and read the full essay. Seriously, go check it out.

The other day I was driving down a road near Miami, FL looking for a mosque. I got lost. Like REALLY lost. Like 30 minutes-out-of-my-way-and-have-to-back-track-now-and-I'm-super-late-for-my-appointment lost. Even though I was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and some Raybans, it was hard for me to keep my cool (rim shot!).

Then I drove past an Eastern Orthodox Church. Then a menorah popped up on the right hand side of the road. Then there was a branch of a Brazilian Pentecostal church trying to evangelize the Americas. Then there was an herberia with statues and accessories for Santeria rituals. Once I took the time to calm down and open my eyes I could appreciate the drive (sort of) for en education in Miami's stunning religious diversity.

The thing is -- Miami isn't alone in its spiritual miscellany.

Religious pluralism is a fact in an ever more globalized, individualized, and post-modern society. The reality of religious pluralism, and its attendant ideology of tolerance, presupposes a serious shift for the "Christian Church" from a position of privilege to one of marginality among many.

If you don't have time to listen to the whole episode, here's a synopsis. Basically my point is this -- given the religious pluralism we live in, it is necessary that faithful, missional, Christians reconsider their foundational theology concerning other religions and worldviews and begin constructing a revitalized and benevolent approach to the “religious other.”

This paper is an attempt to not only outline the facts, trends, and philosophy of religious pluralism, but also sketch a blueprint for a friendly, missionary, encounter with other religions founded on God’s Word a six-step process for better engaging with individuals from another religious point of view. It draws on the Scripture passages above and from my own experience as a ministry leader and interfaith activist over the last decade. The process is not meant to be comprehensive, but a sketched blueprint for your own constructive efforts as an individual or, as I suggest, as a congregation.

While just about everyone is pouring over the numbers regarding "nones" and "Christians" in the newest Pew Research Center "Religious Landscape" Survey I am taking a look at a few of the "other" numbers and data tables here at KenChitwood.com. The story of religion in the U.S. is not only about Christianity and the "nones," but the growing plurality of faiths that are becoming, and already are, thoroughly American religions in many ways -- including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and neo-Paganism to name a few.

This time around I am interested in what the survey has to say about Buddhism. It seems that Buddhists have not grown much over the last decade, maintaining their hold on about 0.7% of the population. While they have experienced growth, many Buddhists have also become part of the nebulous "none" category as well. Buddhists seem to be the most diverse when it comes to interfaith marriage and are also racially diverse. What is also evident is that Buddhism is still largely an immigrant faith. Finally, while nearly half of all Buddhists in the U.S. (45%) reside in the "West" region of the country, the next largest contingent live in the U.S. South (23%).

Venerable Master Thich Tue Uy was one of those who sailed on the open sea without food or water for ten days and nights fleeing Communist rule in Vietnam. In his own words, it is a miracle he even survived.

Master Uy, today a Buddhist monk in El Monte, California, escaped Communist Vietnam in 1990. He is one of the so-called, “Boat People,” a group of some 2 million refugees who fled Vietnam from the time of the fall of Saigon in 1976 until the mid-1990s. Approximately 800,000 of those refugees settled in the United States, some 65,000 in Houston.

Many of the “Boat People”are practicing Buddhists, and during their treacherous journey they found comfort and solace calling on Quan Âm, a Buddhist bodhisattva—an enlightened individual who continues to aide humanity—revered throughout Asia as ‘Guanyin,’(or by other names) who is believed to be a compassionate mother to all who call on her for help in time of need.

Every year in the spring, over 10,000 Vietnamese Buddhist monks, laity and practitioners –many of them “Boat People”–make the pilgrimage to southwest Houston’s Vietnamese Buddhist Center (VBC) to celebrate the annual Quan Âm Festival at the feet of what is claimed to be the largest Quan Âm statue in the Western Hemisphere. It is this festival that acts as the pinnacle point of the Vietnamese Buddhist calendar in the United States, a moment when they not only celebrate their Buddhist heritage, but also their theologized transnational identity.

PHOTO: VNBC

Indeed, in my paper on the people, and the place, of the VBC I make the case that the VBC in Houston could be considered the centrifugal node of transnational sentiment among Vietnamese Buddhists in the U.S. in that it is one of the central locations where Vietnamese Buddhists in diaspora not only make sense of their Vietnamese-Buddhist identity, but also their journey across the waters and their new home in the U.S.

They do this primarily in reference to, and in veneration of, Quan Âm. To make this argument, I briefly trace Vietnamese Buddhist devotion to Quan Âm from its locus in Southeast Asia across the waters to the U.S. and eventually to Houston. Furthermore, I describe the VBC Quan Âm festival and highlight those elements that contribute to a shared Vietnamese Buddhist transnational identity that moves with the flow of the people and in relation to their multicultural milieu in Houston. Along the way I compare this location and festival to other centers of Vietnamese Buddhist religious revival in the U.S. and integrate notes concerning the second generation of Vietnamese Buddhists and integrate theory from other works on diasporic religion and American Buddhismto make a salient point of how the VBC and its festival help Vietnamese Buddhists in the U.S. “make homes and cross boundaries” all the while maintaining a bifocal emphasis on the homeland.